The three-member panel of experts says there are credible
reports that serious human rights violations — including possible war crimes
and crimes against humanity — were committed by both the government and Tamil
Tiger rebels in the last months of the decades-long war.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians perished simply
from being caught in the fighting, the report says.
It urges UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to immediately
investigate the claims.
The government has denounced the report, made public
Tuesday, as biased and based on “unverified material.” The Tigers, crushed at
the end of the war, are virtually nonexistent as an organization now and have
no way to respond to such things.
The violent 26-year war, waged by the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam for an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils, left up to
100,000 people dead on both sides — including at least 7,000 in the last five
months alone, the UN has said.
Since the war ended in May 2009, civilians left in former
war zones have been forced into silence about what they witnessed. Having faced
restrictions even in commemorating their dead since the war, they don’t dare to
demand justice. Many refused to speak with The Associated Press altogether for
fear of reprisals, while some spoke on condition that only one name be used.
But some ethnic Tamil civilians said this week that the
report gives hope that justice for the victims can be served and that the harsh
postwar conditions they live under will ease.
“There was nobody to help us during the war. Children died
before our eyes,” said one man, who only gave his name as Kanustus. He lost his
daughter and several other family members during the war and sustained shrapnel
wounds to a hand and leg.
“There must be an investigation, and the truth must be told.
We know many countries know the truth but pretend not to know,” he said.
Others said the UN move came too late and would amount to
little — belying a mistrust that stems from what the report itself says were
missed opportunities by UN bodies and officials to take steps during the war to
save civilian lives.
“I don’t trust the UN,” said a Tamil housewife called Rose. “We
expected till the end that they will come to our help, but it was not to be.”
Ethnic Tamil lawmaker Suresh Premachandran welcomed the UN report while saying
the government “has not taken a single step toward reconciliation” with the
shell-shocked Tamil community.
Instead, he said, the military has assumed an overwhelming
role in civilian life and taken over ethnic Tamil property — allegations the
government has denied.
“Whatever is said by the panel must be implemented,”
Premachandran said. The government is “dividing the people more by alienating
the Tamil people. ... The Tamil people are so much suppressed.” The UN panel
gave credence to allegations that the government systematically shelled
hospitals, food distribution lines and no-fire zones where civilians had been
asked to gather in the last months of the war. Beaches near Red Cross ships
carrying away wounded evacuees were also bombarded.
On the other side, the Tigers are accused of forcibly
recruiting children, using civilians as human shields and shooting those who
tried to flee their grip.
“We were in a situation where we couldn’t even bury our dead
relatives,” said 32-year-old Sujitha. Ten of her relatives were killed in the
conflict, she said. “The dead will never return. I don’t know what good (the
report) will bring, but the world must know the truth.” Rebel families also
sought an investigation that could bring closure along with justice.
Prabhakaran Bobitha, whose husband was in rebel intelligence when he was
arrested at the war’s end, said an independent UN investigation could help
reveal his fate.
“They must tell me what happened to my husband,” she said,
two years after she last saw him and two other rebels being loaded into an army
jeep.
The UN secretary general said Monday he would launch an
investigation only if Sri Lanka’s government agreed.
The government, however, has warned against such a probe,
saying it would only damage reconciliation efforts between the Tamil minority
and the Sinhalese majority that controls government and the armed forces.
The Foreign Ministry said the UN report’s release at this
stage was “divisive, and disrupts our efforts to reinforce peace, security and
stability in Sri Lanka. It feeds into the political agendas of interested
parties.” Among the majority Sinhalese, many feel it’s unfair to investigate a
government that defeated a group engaged in a terror campaign for decades.
“A 30-year war ruined this country, and we are the people
who witnessed the horror and destruction of that war,” said Jagath Dissanayake,
a 37-year-old house builder. “I think these so-called rights protectors want to
give a new lease of life for the defeated terrorists.”
